[ 00:00:45 ] - Bumper: Hey everybody! Welcome to Episode 4 of The 8-BitV-Cast – It’s all the best bits. If my voice sounds a little different it’s because I think that I might be coming down with something, so don’t get too close to your speakers! Just kidding. If you could catch diseases like that, you’d all have gotten Chlamydia from our first episode. Last week was interesting, and I really enjoyed having my guest panelists! Thanks Kender and Jobot!

[ 00:03:15 ] – Top Bits: The biggest video game news of the week.

• 3DS firmware update launches, bringing new features – Stop-motion animation, thousands of people can now fulfill their dreams of making movies of their action figures doing unsavory things to each other.

• Xenoblade Chronicles announced for North America – Big win for Operation Rainfall, or is it? I think that they ALWAYS intended to release it here. I was always more partial to The Last Story, myself…

Thanks for the feedback on the roundtable episode, especially Chalgyr!

[ 00:11:00 ] – Best O’ The Bleeps – The best game music you’ve never heard

Theme of Pandora’s Box, by Tomohito Nishiura – It’s another Best O’ the Bleeps, Professor Layton has got more musical beauty to share.

1000 Words, by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi – Despite being a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series, I have never played any of them past FF10. Things got weird, and in spite of some tempting reasons, Square-Enix just hasn’t been able to pull me back in. That said, I came across this song, a piano-ONLY version of a song from FFX2, when I lived in New Zealand for two years, and fell in love with it! It’s got such a strong emotional core, but to get the most from it, I advise you to turn up the bass, crank the volume, and relax…

[ 00:11:30 ] – Inbetweener 2 – Is there a video game song that you think everyone needs to hear? Let me know, and if I choose it, I’ll give you the attribution in the next episode of The 8BitV-Cast!

[ 00:14:30 ] – Bit Slaps – This week’s best and worst quotes, and the people who said them

"Our games industry is shockingly immature from a business perspective, because so few folks have business experience before coming in, or an education for business. It's awesome because it's entrepreneurship gone right, that's what our industry comes from, and that's really exciting, but there's not a lot of sharing, there's not a lot of great game business 'how to' books, so we try to share and people listen to us, for some reason, and we try to learn as much as we can from everybody else and their mistakes. It just seemed like the right thing to do." - Epic president Mike Capps

"I think I'm very different from Miyamoto, and not only because I don't speak Japanese. In my opinion, he focuses a lot on gameplay, whereas I really like to work with technical tools, too. I really loved the idea of introducing artistic features in games -- that is to say the storytelling, the artwork, music -- and to get everything together in the best possible alchemy. We have two different approaches, two different tracks." – Michael Ancel, Rayman

[ 00:15:30 ] – Bumper and Lead-Out – And that’s it for episode 4 of The 8BitV-Cast! Please, let us know what you thought by visiting our forums or send us an email at 8bitvs@gmail.com.

BitNick, along with his intrepid gaing buddies Jobot and Kender, explore a variety of topics in the gaming world with The 8-Bit Variety Show's trademark wit and sarcasm! Topics covered include:

- GTA 5 - First Trailer
- Resident Evil: Revelations - The first 3DS game to cost $50.00
- Skyrim - Glitches/problems (including discussion of the framerate phenomena on the PS3)
- Rumored PlayStation Smash Bros-style game called Title Fight
- Rumored Kinect 2 will read lips, according to one source
- The Steam Autumn Sale - IS THERE ANYTHING BETTER?
- What games did you play over thanksgiving?

Best O' The Bleeps is here with two new songs of considerable pulchritude:

Gerudo Valley, by Koji Kondo from "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" - Performed by the Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony and Choir

[ 00:00:45 ] - Bumper: 8BitVS.com branded opening segment, and introduction to The 8BitV-Cast. Thanks to everyone for all the feedback on Episode 1, and here’s hoping that I implement it!

[ 00:03:15 ] – Top Bits: The biggest video game news of the week.

• Skyrim sells 3.4 million in two days! – That means that at least 3.9 million flying wooly mammoths are now free to roam the digital realm.

• Mass Effect 3 Story may change due to leaks – As a huge supporter of narrative in video games, I had to address this story… I can totally understand why they may change it now that it’s been leaked, and I’d be pissed too, but doesn’t this feel a little like the kids in the treehouse changing their password because that kid they don’t like found out about it? If the story is good, it’s good, and you shouldn’t have to equivocate on that point.

[ 00:11:00 ] – Best O’ The Bleeps – The best game music you’ve never heard

Best of Times from World of Goo, but Kyle Gabler – World of Goo, and the two-man company that developed it, are the darlings of the indie game movement. 2D Boy, the dev house that created World of Goo, is home to some of the best talent to be found in the video game industry, and the music for their delightful physics puzzler is no different. Composed and performed by the multi-talented Kyle Gabler, Best of Times is and incredibly powerful song hidden in a game from which you don’t expect music of this quality and intensity. I suggest that you put on some headphones, close your eyes, and crank up the bass for this one to get the full effect. Interesting fact: those bone-ratttling drums in the middle of the song: giant tupperware containers that he recorded himself beating on with his hands.

Waltz for Ariah from Venus and Braves , by Michiru OSHIMA– This is a submission from listener Frankie, and I sure a glad that he sent it our way. Venus and Braves is a PSP game that was only released in Japan, which means that unless you have a region-specific PSP, knowledge of Japanese (more tha just konichiwa), and plenty of time on your hands, people in the USA and Australia probably won’t be playing it anytime soon. Unlike our selections last week, Waltz for Ariah is a thoughful, haunting piece, but it feels like a good one to close out this episode of the Best O’ The Bleeps.

[ 00:11:30 ] – Inbetweener 2 – You’ve just experienced our first Best O’ The Bleeps, but I want to hear from you about it! Is there a video game song that you think everyone needs to hear? Let me know, and if I choose it, I’ll give you the attribution in the next episode of The 8BitV-Cast!

[ 00:14:30 ] – Bit Slaps – This week’s best and worst quotes, and the people who said them

Sotoru Iwata – “But in terms of lessons learned, we need to ensure that we have a strong lineup of games when we release hardware – especially titles from Nintendo. And, looking back, we may not have offered the best lineup of games that we could have brought to the 3DS. It is also important that the digital resources of the hardware are available right away. With 3DS, this came later.”

*clap* So, Iwata is one of our listeners, confirmed!

PETA (people eating tasty aardvarks) Press Release – “Tanooki may be just a "suit" in Mario games, but by wearing the skin of an animal, Mario is sending the message that it's OK to wear fur. We created our game to help inform people that in real life, Mario would be wearing the skin of an animal who was beaten, strangled or electrocuted, and it wouldn't give him any special powers other than the power of self-deception.”

It’s too bad that crazy isn’t a currency, because PETA would be freaking ROLLING! There… there are no words for this kind of insanity.

[ 00:15:30 ] – Bumper and Lead-Out – And that’s it for episode Two of The 8BitV-Cast! Please, let us know what you thought by visiting our forums or send us an email at 8bitvs@gmail.com.

The place to go for the best news, music, and salty commentary from the world of video games!

Podcast Summary

Like the immortal(ly small/inspiring) site from whence it sprung, The 8BitV-Cast provides the very best news, music and sarcasm from the video game industry. Join your host, the irrepressible BitNick, for a wild jaunt as together you scrape the Hot Pocket-filled underbelly of games and the people who love them.